The Minnesota Department of Health website shows nine cases of COVID-19 in Beltrami County as of Friday, May 15th, up three from a week ago, but local health officials say that figure is a little misleading.

Cynthia Borgen, Beltrami County Public Health Division Director, told Lakeland News that two of the cases that were recently added were from people who have permanent addresses in Beltrami County but have not been in the area for many months, so there is no community transmission to be found there. Borgen added that in at least one of those cases, she expects that case to be removed from Beltrami County’s COVID-19 count and reassigned to another county tomorrow.

For the third case, however, Borgen confirmed that someone who lives in Bemidji had tested positive from COVID-19 and has not been traveling, so they do not know where they might have contracted it from.

By — Nathan Green